Hello everyone, I’ve seen a lot of questions and misunderstandings going around regarding how to use features on the Pokeball Plus. While I love the product, the lack of a legitimate user manual prompted me to create this guide to help people out. There’s still some things I don’t understand about the PokeBall, I’ll list these at the end, feel free to comment if you know the answers and I’ll edit this post to reflect it (with credit given to the user, of course).

Using the Pokeball in the Let’s Go! games.

By far the biggest complaint I’ve heard about using the motion controls in these game is the difficulty of catching Pokemon that move to the side. There’re a few tips you should follow:

Make sure to hold the Pokeball straight in front of you when pressing “Get ready”.

When you throw, aim your throw based on where the Pokeball was when you pressed “get ready”, and not where your screen is. This is due to the pokeball using its “get ready” location, and not the screen, to orientate it for the throw.

This will take some getting used to. But as long as you use the location of your Pokeball when you pressed get ready as your point of reference for throwing, you should be able to throw more accurately when the Pokemon moves to the side.

The “y” button on the joy-con is replaced with having to shake the Pokeball

There is no home button functionality on the Pokeball plus

The Mew found in the Pokeball is a one time redeemable mystery gift. Deleting the save data will not give you another Mew to redeem.

Transferring Pokemon to the Pokeball will not remove them from your Let’s Go game. Instead, when you end your stroll with your Pokemon, it will give your Pokemon an exp boost. Be careful with this, as it can lead to your Pokemon becoming vastly overpowered rather quickly.

Nintendo has confirmed that the Pokeball Plus cannot be muted when used with Pokemon Let’s Go

To use the Pokeball as a second player, you must have previously paired the Pokeball to the switch, be using a joy-con as a primary controller, turn the Pokeball on, and give it a shake.

It is possible to use two Pokeballs on one switch system, both Pokeballs must have previously been paired with the console.

Using the Pokeball Plus in Pokemon go

The first and foremost thing to mention here is that you have to have your phones Bluetooth on, but do notsync it with your phones integrated Bluetooth. Instead, follow these instructions:

Turn on your phones Bluetooth (again, do NOT pair it with the phone)

Open Pokemon go, press the Pokeball, and go to settings

Scroll down and press “Poke Ball plus”

Press the top button on the Pokeball to put it into pairing mode

You’ll see “Poke Ball Plus” under the “available devices”

Press on this and confirm and you’ll be all paired up!

I’m not sure why it doesn’t pair when the Pokeball is synced via phone Bluetooth, but when I tried it, I had to unpair from my phone and use the steps listed above.

Also worth mentioning that the top button is the one that needs to be pressed to interact with things in Pokemon Go, not the joystick button

When Pokemon are close enough to be caught using the Pokeball Plus, the LED on the device will flash greenfor a Pokemon you’ve caught before, or yellow for a new Pokemon, vibrate, then stay solid green. Pressing the /Top Button/ will attempt to capture the Pokemon. There will be three white LED flashes, then the LED will flash rainbow for a successful catch, or Red for a failed catch. If you receive an error (Red LED immediately after pushing the top button, there are two possible reasons:

You are out of Pokeballs (the Pokeball Plus will only throw normal Pokeballs. Not Great or Ultra Balls)

Your Pokemon storage is full

When a Poke Stop is within range to be spun using the Pokeball plus, pressing the top button will spin the Pokestop. A rainbow flash on the LED indicates a successful spin, while a Red LED indicates a failed spin. A spin may fail for one of two reasons:

Your bag storage is full

You are moving too fast to spin the PokeStop (For example, in a moving vehicle)

Having a Pokemon in the Pokeball (out for a stroll) will make it so Poke Stops are spun automatically for you

You do not have to have Pokemon Go as your active screen on you phone to use the Pokeball plus, as long as it is open in the background (you can switch to another app or lock the phone screen and still catch pokemon and spin stops)

Having the Pokeball Plus connected to the game, but no/data internet connection causes the Pokeball Plus to flash red and vibrate at regular intervals. This can be caused by taking a phone call depending on your phone/carrier.

General use

While it is possible to mute the Pokeball Plus when walking with it, there is currently no way to mute the game sounds while playing Pokemon Let’s GO! To mute while disconnected from the Switch, tap the top button and the joystick button at the same time. This is also how you unmute the device. One long vibration means it is muted, three short vibrations means it is unmuted

To interact with the Pokemon stored in the Pokeball hold the joystick button until the LED turns on. This makes it so you can shake the Pokeball to interact with it, it will also make it so the Pokemon will cry out to you at random. (when muted, the Pokeball will just vibrate). A rainbow LED when interacting with a Pokemon indicates you have made the Pokemon very happy by playing with it. (Nanoloop reports this rewards with a guaranteed heart scale when transferred back into the game)

If you evolve a Pokemon in Let’s Go, but that Pokemon is out for a stroll in your Pokeball, the game will still recognize them as the same Pokemon and the evolved Pokemon will still get the exp boost.

There is a small black recessed button towards the back of the Pokeball that acts as a factory reset. Can be used to troubleshoot problems with the Pokeball. This will NOT reset your mew gift, just internal settings.

When pulling a Pokemon from the Pokeball back into Let’s Go, disconnecting (putting the switch to sleep, leaving the stroll mode screen, etc) or not saving will cause you to lose all exp boosts and bonuses from walking your Pokemon

If you own more than one Pokeball Plus device, you can sync multiples to the game and take more than one Pokemon out for a stroll (one for each pokeball).

Support Mode

To put the Pokeball Plus into support mode, hold both the top button and the joystick button at the same time for 5 seconds, or until the LED turns on and the Pokeball vibrates. To exit support mode, press the joystick button once. You can also cycle through 3 options by pressing the top button. Here’s an explanation of these options:

Blue: Holding the joystick button and top button for 5 seconds while the blue light is illuminated will cause the Pokeball Plus to reset it’s pairing information with the switch. Presumably to allow you to reconnect to a different Switch console.

White: Holding the joystick button and top button for 5 seconds while the white LED is illuminated will delete all user data off of the Pokeball plus.

I hope this guide helps some people out who may be confused about the use of the Pokeball Plus, any additions or corrections, please feel free to point them out and I will correct them